Leclerc survives investigation to take home F2 pole

Charles Leclerc took his third pole position of the season in Monaco on Thursday - Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd

Charles Leclerc continued his domination of qualifying in 2017 as he survived an investigation to take pole position for the Feature race at Monaco on Thursday.

With qualifying split into two sessions, the Prema Racing driver set the best lap in group one of 1:19.309s to take pole position, although he was made to sweat by those in group two, with Alexander Albon setting a best time of 1:19.321s to join him on the front row for ART Grand Prix.

Leclerc however had to survive an investigation after he stalled in the pit lane and did not wait the mandatory minute before getting going again, but instead of a penalty for the Monegasque driver, his Prema Racing team were instead fined €500.

With Leclerc confirmed to start the Feature race at his home event from pole position, it means Oliver Rowland will start third on the grid for DAMS, and he will be joined on the second row of the grid by Russian Time’s Artem Markelov, who took his first GP2 Series victory in Monaco back in 2016.

Despite ending his session in the barriers at the exit of the Swimming Pool complex, Nobuharu Matsushita will start fifth on the grid in the second of the ART Grand Prix entries, with Norman Nato sixth for Pertamina Arden.

Jordan King will start seventh for MP Motorsport, while Nyck de Vries would have started eighth for Rapax but for his three-place grid penalty carried over from Spain, meaning Luca Ghiotto, Nicholas Latifi and Sean Gelael move up the grid.